Today’s lesson on holidays was a great example of a few
different things:
1. How much the world really shares, but
2. How completely different our experiences can be
(within a country)
3. And how much education really is a two way
street
Since talking about the vocabulary and lesson plan last
night, Nikki and I were… a little bit anxious about some of the content. I come
from a secular background with a heavy Jewish influence, and Nikki is Jewish;
our experiences and holidays, therefore, don’t exactly typify those of most
American people. We were also a little anxious about introducing the concept of
religion in class, but we figured that it would be too difficult to discuss
Easter and Christmas without at least mentioning Christianity. Essentially, we
decided to go all-in and hope for the best, which is always my favorite kind of
plan.
To open class, we had kids come to the board and write names
of holidays they knew. We’ve been finding that to be a very effective way of
garnering participation from the class, and everyone excitedly jumped at the
opportunity to show off (again). Nikki and I were both surprised that the
entire board was covered top to bottom with different holidays, and there were
no repeats. Fortunately, many of them were Chinese holidays, giving Nikki and I
the chance to be the students rather than the teachers. I know that I learned
quite a few different holidays (Teachers’ Day on September 10th, for
example), and I definitely got a strong dose of Chinese culture from the kids.
Listening to them talk highlighted a lot of differences between the US and
China (and our perceptions of both), but it also showed the kinds of things we
all value: family, love, and cultural pride (and food).
After discussing some of the other US holidays to many
“oohs” and “aahs,” Nikki introduced the class to Hangman while I helped the
class write a story, one student at a time. Writing got a little but lost in
the shuffle for our past classes, as Nikki and I had put a heavy emphasis on
speaking, listening, and reading over writing. I was very happy to see, though,
that the kids had fantastic writing skills. I suppose that shouldn’t really be
that surprising to me, as I had always found writing in other languages easier
than speaking, but I was very pleased nonetheless. Some of the kids who were
less confident about speaking in class showed they had great command of the
language, and everyone impressed me with the vocabulary that they knew and
wanted to use. In the end, the story the class wrote made no sense because each
student wrote one line of it, but it was a lot of fun for all of us.
The afternoon was like any other: projects were driven by
the students and activities were held inside (to beat the heat). My group for
the sociology survey project had to make a PowerPoint for our work, which had
me running around a bit to get electronics to work. When the kids finally got
to start, it was evident that they had never made a PowerPoint before… and I
was certainly not going to be able to explain how to do so in Chinese. I got
some pictures from Charlene, though, which at least got them started. While I’m
still not sure exactly what we needed to have, we put together about four
slides of material for Saturday’s presentation.
The VA volunteers (from here on out known as the LAC bros)
spent various parts of the day trying to plan the last day’s lesson plan
(travel). At breakfast, the LAC bros assembled a vocabulary list; at lunch, we
made some Jeopardy questions; after projects, we tried to finish the lesson
plan but got cut short by a surprise sendoff dinner.
It should be pointed out that the headmaster of the school
adores us (as do some of the teachers), so she made a point of taking us to a
ridiculously beautiful (and expensive) final meal with the LAC volunteers. We
rode over in a bus, which the LAC bros filled with the sounds of the Backstreet
Boys, R-Kelly, and other pop anthems. This kind of distracted us from the fact
that the road on which we were driving was comically small until we noticed two
or three cars almost coming head-on at our bus. Thanks to some classic Chinese
driving techniques, we were able to arrive safely at our hilltop destination.
The restaurant had its own fishing pond and was made out of
the most beautiful soft, amber-toned wood. The entire building almost looked
carved out of a single block of wood, and it was in a classic Chinese style
that took my breath away. The back balcony, where diners sat, was also
suspended over the downward slope of the hill and looked out onto the river,
which took my breath away in multiple ways. Red lanterns hung gracefully at the
corners of the roof, blowing in the wind. I would’ve been happy just seeing
that.
Before diving into dinner, the volunteers from EGL and LAC
took at least 100 pictures with the school personnel and each other. For the
first time, it really felt like things were coming to a close. And the food…
THE FOOD. That was easily the best meal we’ve had all trip. Every meat was
cooked, every vegetable was prepped, and every drink (Pepsi, orange juice, rice
wine) made an appearance. The headmaster of the school also brought her
daughter to the dinner to help translate between English and Chinese. As
everyone finished eating (except Gina, who was her usual slow self), we all
drifted about the balcony conversing. The LAC volunteers ran down to the
riverside for another walk, and they came back drenched after it started
raining. We even got a little wet on the balcony, but the storm also brought a
great breeze with it. We all cheered when the drops started to fall.
All in all, the dinner was great and it really put our
impact in perspective for me. While the first dinner was a welcome for unproven
volunteers, this one felt like a celebration of accomplishment (even if our
work wasn’t quite done yet). One the way home, the LAC volunteers serenaded us
with Chinese songs, which felt like the perfect way to cap the week. While
we’re not done yet, I feel like we could leave now and be very pleased with
what we’ve given this community.
Also, they REALLY want to play us in basketball.
-Jesse
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